New BCS school building proposal cuts costs, years

Oak Harbor Middle School was recognize for their support of military families and became one of the first of eight schools in the state to be honored with a Purple Star Award by the Ohio Department of Education.(Photo: News Herald file)Buy Photo

OAK HARBOR - Following a rejection by voters last year, a bond issue for construction of a grade school will again go before residents of the Benton-Carroll-Salem school district, but the May ballot issue has been changed significantly.

The new proposal includes a 4.35-mill bond issue over 30 years to build a school facility for grades K-7 at a cost $40 million. If passed, it would cost taxpayers about $12.68 per month, or $152.16 per year, for a $100,000 home.

The election will be held May 2, with early voting beginning April 4.

Compared to what was rejected by 60 percent of voters in August’s special election, BCS officials cut the total cost by over $3 million and reduced the length of the bond by seven years, while keeping the millage rate similar.

The changes were made based on feedback from voters, according to the Benton-Carroll-Salem school board. Superintendent Guy Parmigian said in general voters said the previous bond issue was for “too much” and “too long.”

“People had a harder time wrapping their mind around 37 years,” he said. “So we made it 30 years, which is (similar in length) to a mortgage.”

Despite a nearly 20 percent reduction in the length of the bond, the school district was able to keep the millage rate at 4.35. Cajon Keeton, BCS treasurer, said there are only 10 other school districts in the state with a lower rate than Benton-Carroll-Salem.

While he acknowledged the financial benefit of having the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in the B-C-S district, Keeton credited the district’s fiscal responsibility for being able to maintain the relatively low millage rate.

Parmigian said the total cost of the project was cut by removing proposed renovations to Oak Harbor High School, which was included in last year’s bond issue along with the new K-7 school.

While needs at the high school still remain, he said, pursuing those over time through the district’s permanent improvement fund allowed them to alleviate some of the bond issue’s immediate costs.

The new grade school building would replace both R.C. Waters Elementary and Oak Harbor Middle School, which school officials and employees said are showing their age. R.C. Waters was built in 1956 and the middle school was built in 1911.

Parmigian described the old buildings as having been built during a “one-size-fits-all” mentality regarding public education.

According to the school board, the old buildings are a barrier to “differentiated instruction” and other modern teaching practices, a barrier which they hope to bring down with the construction of a new innovative facility if voters approve the bond issue.

If passed, the new K-7 facility will be built on 13-acres of land already owned by the district near Oak Harbor High School, with tentative plans for it to open in August of 2020.